Unified messaging systems integrate several different communication media such that users are able to retrieve and send messages associated with the different media using a single interface. Typically, a unified messaging system integrates voice messaging systems with e-mail systems. The single interface may, for example, be a telephone or a PC. An example of a unified messaging system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No 5,557,659.
A typical unified messaging system broadly provides an architecture in which at least one unified messaging voice server is provided as an interface, or voice gateway, between a PBX system and an e-mail system. A typical e-mail system includes at least one message store, a directory, at least one e-mail client, and a user administrator application.
To allow unified messaging systems to scale to support large deployments, a voice mail domain is created. The voice mail domain consists of a plurality of voice servers, which work together to exhibit the characteristics of a larger system. The voice mail servers preferably share unified messaging configuration data.
The unified messaging voice servers in a voice mail domain use the directory of the e-mail system to store the shared unified messaging configuration information. This unified messaging configuration information, shared by all voice servers within a voice mail domain, is stored in what is known as a voice mail domain object. Storing the voice mail domain directory object, containing the configuration information, in the directory provides a single copy of the shared configuration data conveniently accessible to all the voice servers.
When the system is initially configured, a voice server automatically configures the voice mail domain object of the directory in accordance with its own configuration set-up by setting the appropriate fields of the voice mail domain object. This configuration information in the voice mail domain directory object, and any configuration information held in the voice mail domain directory object subsequent thereto, is not in general transparent to any directory access applications and in particular is not to the user administration applications of the e-mail system.
Once the system is initially configured, its configuration may be subsequently altered. Such subsequent alteration of the system configuration is carried out by a unified messaging voice server, which updates the configuration information in the directory automatically responsive to control information, usually received remotely. Again, such updating of the configuration information in the directory is not transparent to the directory access applications. When a particular voice server updates the voice mail domain object, the other voice servers in the voice mail domain discover the update from the modifications made to the voice mail domain object in the directory. That is, there is no requirement for a voice server to notify all other voice servers in the domain when the update is made.
The unified messaging configuration information stored in the directory, as mentioned hereinabove, takes the form of a voice mail domain directory object. If the unified messaging system has more than one voice mail domain, then there will be a corresponding number of voice mail domain objects stored in the directory. A voice mail domain object contains a number of fields each defining a characteristic of the unified messaging system for that domain. As the voice mail domain object is proprietary, and opaque to the e-mail system administrator, then there is no possibility for the administration applications of the e-mail system to adapt or use the unified messaging system or configuration data in any meaningful way.
The voice mail domain object is provided as opaque to the e-mail system because of the proprietary nature of the information stored therein, which relates to the configuration of the system. The configuration information is valued to remain proprietary for commercial reasons.
However, some subset of the voice mail domain object contains configuration information that a vendor may not consider proprietary. For example the voice mail domain object may contain a field identifying the language(s) to be used by the system. The complete invisibility of the voice mail domain object to the administration applications means that the administration applications are not provided with any level of information concerning the system configuration, and as such there is no possibility for the user administration applications to provide any local adaptation of the unified messaging system.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an improved unified messaging architecture. In particular, the present invention seeks to facilitate the capability to write unified messaging user administration software which requires access to at least some elements of the voice mail domain object of the unified messaging system, for example for range or field validation purposes.